Gbuy will be available starting June 28th for the merchants already involved in Google's Gbuy beta test; the rest will have to wait for a six to eight weeks implementation period.

The online payment system aims to be the next step in Google's present online produces and advertising programs, helping to close the consumer - publicity relation by offering a means to buy the products advertised.

In this regard, Gbuy will not be, at least at first, a person-to-person, stored value payments system, but will focus instead on the merchant - customer relations.

Gbuy is believed to be free in the initial testing period, but is expected to finally charge 1.5 to 2 percent out of each intermediated transaction.

Google's initiative has already spawn controversy. The online giant is suspected of centralizing all data on the transactions that will use the Gbuy platform. The results could create a data base that will show precisely which of the advertisements succeed in actually attracting customers and, in the end, how many actually result in a transaction, indicating the level of consumer response to publicity investments.

Based on these findings, Google could comprise a ranking with the target sites for sponsored links to be placed in order to increase sales, and of link placement that would generate higher traffic.